Santander Bank has launched a new initiative in partnership with Endeavor dubbed Radar Santander. The program is designed to provide mentoring, networking and access to the bank’s international clients and partners to five startups in the development phase.

(ZDNet) Santander Bank has launched an initiative to foster technology ventures in Brazil and develop new ways to improve banking relationships with individuals and other businesses.

Dubbed Radar Santander, the program is led in partnership with entrepreneurship NGO Endeavor. Specific areas the bank is interested in include CRM and Big Data, risk management, payment solutions, human resources management and relationship channels.

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The initiative will be seeking ventures in the scale-up development stage, so businesses past the start-up phase, with a proven business model that is adherent to market needs. Ten businesses will be selected take part in a pitch session where five proposals will be chosen.

Executives from Santander and mentors from Endeavor will be working with the ventures during the seven-month program and will be working on a bespoke roadmap for each business according to its specific profile and growth requirements.

Ventures looking to take part in the initiative can submit their applications until March 24.

Other large banking institutions in Brazil also have their own start-up programmes. Local giant Itaú has Cubo, a well-established mentoring operation based in São Paulo and Bradesco, another large Brazilian bank, is working with new ventures with its initiative InovaBRA, in areas such as mobile and blockchain.